Duo tasked with grounding OKC’s pair of shooting stars
SAN ANTONIO — Let there be no question about what the Spurs think of Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook. For the record: “Of course he’s a superstar,” Spurs point guard Tony Parker said. “It’s not even close.”
Let there be no question about what the Spurs think of Oklahoma City forward Kevin Durant, either.
“They have two superstars,” Parker said. “Just to be clear.”
This point — inexplicably up for debate in the Thunder’s first-round series against Dallas — won’t be a bone of contention in the Western Conference semifinal series that opens Saturday at the AT&T Center.
Spurs guard Manu Ginobili describes OKC’s superstar twosome as some sort of zoological radiation experiment gone awry.
“It’s a two-headed snake,” Ginobili said.
Durant, the 27-year-old former University of Texas prodigy, is OKC’s scoring savant. He led the Thunder at 28.2 points per game during the regular season, topping his numbers from two of his four NBA scoring title seasons.
Westbrook, 27, is OKC’s beating heart and angry soul, not so much playing the game as attacking it. He averaged 23.5 points, 10.4 assists, 7.8 rebounds and two steals, and he unofficially led the league in scowls per 100 possessions.
The 18 triple-doubles Westbrook logged in the regular season were the most in the NBA in three decades.
So it was a head-scratching development when, before OKC’s Game 5 victory in Dallas, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban labeled Westbrook “an All-Star, but not a superstar.”
Durant’s return fire at Cuban was less surprising.
“He’s an idiot,” Durant said from the interview podium after OKC clinched.
Give the Spurs this: They are no idiots. They are hyper aware of the double trouble they are about to face.
Getting defensive
Luckily for the Spurs, moreso than perhaps any other NBA team, they are equipped to deal with OKC’s dynamic duo.
To return Ginobili’s analogy, in Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, the Spurs boast a pair of snake handlers.
Everyone knows about Leonard, a two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year who has proven capable of holding his own against either of the Thunder’s big guns.
Lesser lauded is Green, the 28-year-old shooting guard who has struggled with his 3-point shot this season but nevertheless gives the Spurs a second All-Defense caliber defender in the backcourt.
“He’s an underrated defender and a guy we count on,” Spurs captain Tim Duncan said.
The last time the Spurs and Thunder faced each other with both teams at full strength, a 93-85 Spurs victory on March 12, coach Gregg Popovich opted to use Green against Durant for much of the game, with Leonard on Westbrook.
It gave the Spurs a fighting chance at defending OKC’s bread-and-butter play, a pick-and-roll involving Durant screening for Westbrook.
With OKC’s signature play flummoxed, the Spurs’ league-leading defense swallowed the Thunder whole. Westbrook went 5 of 16 with nine turnovers, Durant was 11 of 25.
If the Spurs can repeat the results four times in the next two weeks, they can punch their ticket to the Western Conference finals.
Whichever strategy the Spurs choose is a nonstarter without Green quietly developing into one of the top defensive guards in the league.
When Green signed a four-year, $40 million deal last summer, the uninitiated assumed the pay bump was reward for his 3-point shooting prowess. It was not exactly. “They don’t really need me for offense,” Green said. “My role here is to try and be the best wing defender I can be.”
For Green, that has been a career-long process.
Twice waived by the Spurs before latching on for good in 2011-12, Green’s defense could be spotty as a younger player.
“The first two times we cut him, he was God awful,” Popovich said. “Over the last few years, he’s really taken pride in his defense.”
‘ Try to contain them’
Come Saturday night, when two of the league’s top eight scorers visit AT&T Center, Green has a chance to earn his contract.
He can do it without firing a shot.
Oklahoma City boasts two bona fide NBA superstars. This much is not up for debate.
In Leonard and Green, the Spurs believe they boast two superstar stoppers.
Let there be no question about the Spurs’ approach to handling OKC’s twoheaded snake that is Westbrook and Durant. For the record: “You are not going to stop them,” Parker said. “You just try to contain them and make their life a little harder.”